As it turns out, the dizziness, etc. I cited in the last blog that I made was probably due to another cause than the blood pressure going out of control (which it actually did not)...
The weekend was great, Bill came home, and I was very happy!
And then...well, I will just copy and paste some posts I made at Ahira's Hangar while talking to some friends. The books I am talking about are Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever which feature a character who loses two fingers to an infection...
from last Wednesday:
Well, its an ugly case of life imitating art. 
So, I'm in the middle of the chrons, right? And now I have the infected finger (right middle, naturally 
) from hell. 
(Unlike Covenant, though,it is only one finger, and since there is nothing wrong with my nerves, it hurts. ) And rather than coming from leprosy, this one all started with a splinter. 
So the docs put me on a course of ciprofloxacin (a pretty powerful antibiotic) today, and wrote for me to be off work until next week (might be longer, which is fine since I have a few months' worth of sick time in my bank). I get to go back in (to the docs) on Friday morning, and they will decide what to do if the infection does not get any better from the cipro. 
I was wishing for a bit more time to catch up with my Donaldson rereads before the new book comes out, but this is ridiculous.
But since there was no work for me today, I did get to go watch my younger son play soccer out on Grosse Ille. Grosse Ille is a beautiful wooded island in the Detroit River right across from historic Amherstberg, Ontario. So besides getting to watch Mr. Sunshine play soccer, I got to see all sort of boats out on the water and flocks of swans swimming and flying around. 
So, because of the pain, there was some unexpected beauty and joy in my day. 
And now it is time to go back upstairs and continue reading The Wounded Land. 
from Thursday:
I hope it clears up soon, too. I have never liked pain.
And the bad part is, as Moonwatcher said, it is hard to move my finger. The infection is centered around the knuckle, which is good in that the really dangerous place for an infection is the base - but the swelling makes it really hard to bend the finger. Besides taking the cipro, one of the things I am supposed to do like crazy the next few days is to soak the hand in water as hot as I can stand with soap or Epsom salts, and flex and bend and move the finger repeatedly to keep it from getting crippled up.
Some good things:
* Cannot do housework, especially grody stuff like changing the litter boxes 
* Cannot go to work, cannot do housework - means I can read and watch some movies
* I am not actually completely confined to the house - they do not want me to go to work because they feel the wound will heal better if left uncovered - and I cannot walk around the hospital with an open oozing wound - too much chance to give or get infections from the patients - which means I can go out to breakfast or lunch with my husband as his schedule allows
So while the pain sucks, there are actually a few pluses.
Just got done reading The Wounded Land, and cannot go to sleep quite yet. Coercri always gets to me. 
Now it is off to the land of the mind twisting Elohim in The One Tree. I wonder if I will ever fully understand what they are about?
and:
Spent a very quiet day at home alternating between soaking my hand in hot water and Dead Sea Salts, and napping on the couch with The One Tree. Between soaks and naps I have made to the hurricane and the eel attack. 
Also watched some playoff baseball, but the game I was watching became a blow out, so I have come downstairs to cuddle with the dog and cats for a little while.
All sorts of topics I want to start down in the Donaldson forum about the Second Chrons once I have a bit more energy.
The infection is a bit less swollen today, which is nice because my finger is moving easier. It has spread a bit to the left, but looks the same in the up, down, and right directions. That's good, as the down direction is the dangerous one.
My husband is upstairs cooking one of my favorite dinners - meatloaf and cheesy potatoes. I cannot cook for anyone except myself right now, for obvious reasons but my husband is a very good cook, so that is OK. Aren't men who can cook well sexy as hell? 
from Friday:
Went back to the docs again this morning. They are pleased over how the infection is responding to the cipro (not as red, not leaking bodily fluids all over the place anymore). So I should be able to go back to work on Monday.
Maybe I will get done with the Donaldson reread by the time Amazon delivers FR to my house. I'm on the home stretch with The One Tree now. My problem is that I want to put the Donaldson down right now and turn to one of my light & fluffy "comfort reads" instead. But I will try to stay strong and on course.
from Saturday:
Well, I just finished White Gold Wielder in my Donaldson reread. Only Runes left to go, and one more day of medical leave to try to read a chunk of it. I ordered FR from Amazon, so I figure it will get to me sometime late in the week, so I should be able to do it.
The infected finger has been sloughing off big chunks of dead skin today. I will have one heckuva scar over nearly half of the back (knuckle) side of the finger. But - at least I will still have the finger. As the doc told the med student on Friday morning,
| Quote: |
| If this had happened to her before modern antibiotics we'd have had to take it off. |
So here is a toast to the miracle of ciprofloxacin! 
It has been a lovely autumn week and the leaves are changing in all of their glory. Tomorrow we are hoping to make a lovely drive through the countryside to here: http://www.calderdairy.com/ to buy fresh milk and dairy goodies and also to any cider mills we happen to pass. The autumn is a great gift of beauty and bounty here in Michigan. Fresh produce exploding out of the roadside farm stands, apples and pears and peaches, red raspberries, freshly pressed apple cider with fresh baked donuts still hot and newly sugared, fields filled with yellow cornstalks and bright orange pumpkins. The miracle of the changing leaves in yellows, reds, oranges, bronzes, and browns. And in the evening we will have a fire in my husband's fire bowl in the backyard and roast marshmallows and sing goofy songs. 
Maybe I won't get too much of Runes read tomorrow after all. But that's OK.
from Sunday:
| Highdrake wrote: |
 Obviously, I don't come in here all that often, so don't know a lot of stuff that goes on. What the hell happened to your finger?!?!?!?!?! |
Last weekend my middle finger on the right hand hurt. I looked at it, and there was a blister going across the back of it just under the knuckle with a splinter sticking out of it. Now, I do not know how long the splinter had been in there, or where the splinter had come from. I do not remember getting a splinter, so it might have been in there quite some time...
I pulled out the splinter, and did not think anymore about it.
Until a couple of days later when it started showing signs of infection. So I started keeping a band aid over it, and kept it slathered with antibiotic ointment.
But it kept getting worse, to the point where I wanted to go to the ER after work on Tuesday night because it hurt so much. But I have a cheap HMO and did not feel like trying to track down the on call doctor from my doctor's office to get permission to go to the ER in the middle of the night (my doctor's office explained to me the next day that the state has passed a law forbidding insurance companies from requiring permission to go to the ER, so if I ever get this sick again, I will not hesitate to go right in).
So I went to the doctor in Wednesday, and by then it was pretty bad. I had an overflow appointment with one of the nurse practitioners and she took one look and went off to find the doctors.They wrote me to be off of work for a few days, and put me on a really strong antibiotic called ciprofloxacin. When I went back in on Friday it was still bad enough to freak out the med student, but the infection was starting to clear up nicely.
While not completely well, I am doing much better, and am planning on going back to work tomorrow.
And if I ever get to meet any of you guys again, I can show you the huge scar.
The drive through the autumn countryside to go to the dairy was gorgeous, Moonwatcher.
I did not take my camera, however. We got ice cream, milk, and chocolate milk at the dairy. This is the only ice cream I have ever had that is better than Cold Stone. All 30 whatever flavors of it. Time to head outside - it is fire time!
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